US Immigration News

In response to concerns over allowing children to visit Canada and the United States, the U.S. government announced last week that new passport rules to be implemented in January 2008 will be altered.

Children younger than 16 years old will not be required to have passports so long as they have parental consent.

Historically, immigration enforcement has focused on people who are in the United States illegally. During 2006, immigration became a very heated political topic and focused more attention than usual on the issue.

Some surprising statistics began to emerge as people began to debate what to do about illegal immigration.

Worried immigrants across the United States are checking their budgets. The cost of filing more than two dozen kinds of immigration forms is proposed to go up by an average of 66% this year.

For the vast majority of legal immigrants who are just starting to apply for residency, fees for filing forms and for being fingerprinted would go from $935 to $1985.

Ten cities across the United States are launching a experimental citizenship test designed to make immigrants think about the answers rather than answer through rote memorization. San Antonio and El Paso began the program on 15 February 2007; the other eight cities will begin their trial runs this month.

Last week, United States immigration authorities presented their plans to raise fees for visas and citizenship documents by an average of 66%. Hefty fee hikes for citizenship and permanent residency applications are being justified to raise revenue to help pay for shortening processing time and to improve service.

When any region of the United States has required workers for large building projects, immigrant workers have historically been relied upon. A recent increase in construction in New York City has resulted in a shortage of construction workers and, once again, America is looking for immigrants to help.